We already know that Tesla aims to reduce production costs by 50% over the next 5 years using various optimization methods. However, the manufacturer would like to go even further. During the event Investor Daywhich was held on 1er last March, the stylist of Tesla Franz Von Holzausen, and Chief of Engineering, Lars Moravy, took the time to explain how Tesla plans to completely overhaul the way a car is built.
Indeed, when its gigafactory in Mexico is ready to build vehicles, Tesla will set up the ambitious project to revolutionize the construction of automobiles thanks to a panoply of improvements to its assembly lines.
According to the manufacturer, not only will this new procedure allow Tesla to build its factories differently, but it will also improve its space-time efficiency by 30% and its operational density by 40% while reducing its production costs.
Normally, an automaker builds a vehicle in a specific order: body panel stamping, body construction, painting, and final assembly. During this time, the car moves slowly on a rail. In reality, it is first built, painted, then its doors are then removed to install the cabin components and the engine. This technique is still based on the serial structure, created by Henry Ford’s assembly line.
Tesla therefore wants to optimize this process, because it considers that it involves a lot of waste of time and resources. Thanks to its Giga Press, capable of building the entire side of a car in one piece, each section will first be built in parallel and then grafted to the car. Finishing components will be installed on these sections as they are constructed. Finally, it is a hybrid between mass production and parallel production.
In this way, more workers can work on a single vehicle at the same time and fewer workers are waiting to complete a task. In addition, Tesla claims that this way of operating will reduce its carbon footprint by 40%.
It will however be necessary to be patient before seeing the fruit of this manufacturing revolution, because the mexico giga-factory which will be located in the state of Nuevo León, will not be operational until 2026, at a minimum.
